Page 19

19

Tex

Banging on my door woke me with a start, and I looked around the dark room, confused for a moment. Another round of banging, and I stared at the door before standing up. I’d fallen asleep sitting up on the sofa when the sun was still up. As I walked to the door, I stretched my neck, trying to work out the stiffness.

“Tex!” Micah called out.

He hadn’t been here when I came to my room, and I didn’t recall hearing that he was coming to stay the night. He preferred to stay at home with Dolly.

Hurrying now, I jerked open the door to find him raising is fist to knock again.

“Fuck, you were out of it,” he said. “We gotta go.” He glanced down at my clothes. “Good, you’re still dressed. Boots and all. Let’s go.”

I rubbed a hand over my face, still feeling out of sorts. “Where are we going? What time is it? I need to grab my phone.”

“Private airstrip. Nine, uh, fifteen. Grab it and come on,” he shot back at me.

I flipped the light switch and scanned the room until I saw my phone on the sofa beside where I’d slept. I went to grab it and headed back to the door.

“Why are we going to the airstrip?” I asked.

A smile tugged at the corners of his mouth. “Seems there was a Salem sighting,” he said. “And she ain’t in Ireland. The fucker stopped in Madison, Georgia, today, and they had some lunch.”

She was in Georgia?

I was wide awake now and walking past Micah and to the stairs. “Who saw her in Madison? How did they know to look for her?” I asked while hurrying down the stairs.

“Madison is where the Georgia family of the Mafia is located. Hughes sent out pictures of them to every branch he has. Told them what was going on and if they had a close connection that they trusted at the trafficking ports, to take the pics to them and see if they knew anything,” he said as we reached the door leading outside.

I shoved it open and stopped mid-stride.

Brick, Country, Jars, and Lick sat on their bikes, looking at me.

“You ready to go get your woman?” Brick called out.

“Let’s get this show on the road,” Jars said.

My eyes cut to Lick. He cocked one eyebrow, as if to challenge me. I didn’t want him going, but fuck if I had time to deal with this shit. She was mine. She was always going to be mine. I didn’t want him helping to get her back. The others were here for me. He wasn’t. He wanted her for himself.

Micah slapped me on the back. “Let that go, yeah,” he said with a nod in Lick’s direction.

Then he continued what he’d been telling me before we walked out. “Anyway, King Salazar was eating lunch with Thatcher Shephard, and he spotted them. Recognized them immediately. He even got a pic with his phone and sent it to Blaise. Blaise had him and Thatcher follow them. They are currently at a motel in Greensboro, Georgia. Checked into room 104 under the name of Calvin Harris from fucking Alabama. And get this—the bastard has a Southern accent.”

I looked at him once we were both on our bikes before starting it up. “Are they going to keep them there?” I asked, the first ray of hope I could cling to. Shutting out the fact that Lick was a couple of bikes over.

“The entire Georgia branch is there now and have the place surrounded. They’ve not been seen, and Murphy has another man with him who’s watching the place. He’s armed and staked out near their room in a dark black vehicle. He followed them from the restaurant.”

I sucked in a deep breath and let it out. I was going to get her back.

Our engines roared to life, and we headed to the airstrip that Blaise Hughes used when flying in and out of Miami.

The fear that she didn’t want to come back to me was in the back of my head. Why was she traveling with him and not trying to get free? Why hadn’t she found a phone and called me? If he had her out in the open like this, maybe she wasn’t being held captive, but had chosen to go with him.

I shut that thought down before letting it fester.

Salem loved me. I might not deserve it, but she did. She would want to return to me. If she had left me, then it was because of Nixie’s pregnancy. When she found out that the baby wasn’t mine, she’d want to come back. The only obstacle in our future was no more. We could build our house. The one I’d dreamed of when I was twenty-one years old. Have a kid or two. People had them at her age all the time.

I didn’t know what war we had ahead of us with the Murphys, but one thing at a time.

First, I had to get her back.